who remembers the old days ..

[shellfish]

I thought my 60mm refractor was great because I could see the craters on the moon. I seem to recall it had like a click stop zoom type eyepiece x25, x50 and x75. I saw a tasco advertised in a catlogue that went up to x500 or so and had a finderscope! Thought they must be the best thing ever. Things are much better these days.

LOL I must be the odd noobie out... I just got a 60mm Refractor and just getting to know the stars :)

Well I still think I'm hip and down with the kids lol :headbang:

[bish]

I had one of those when I was a kid - I used to rest the flimsy tripod that came with it on the top of an old Anderson shelter in my back garden. It gave me a reasonable introduction to the night sky

The rod that attached the mount to the tripod ended up snapping in 2 pieces! I was gutted.

[dtr42]

monki

gotta agree with you i got my 8* dob for 80 quid cause the guy was bored with it and moving house and he sent me a 7-21 skywatcher zoom he had bought and forgot about:) so his loss was my gain [had been looking at sky for over a year with bins and had decided to upgrade ] and it's like everything if you had the money you would........ and fill in the blanks

[Moonshane]

I am slightly different to many here as I am a relatively recent convert to serious visual astronomy. However, I can recall from my youngest school days having an interest and even having my mind bent and stomach churned thinking about the implications of 'the universe'. Also, as a birder I retained an interest seeing Hale Bopp and Hyakutake comets and also solar and lunar eclipses. It seems the interest has always been there and it took reaching 40 for the spark to be lit properly!

[m1ck]

WATS that song " the times they are a changing" can it be a good thing? good for new beginners [like me] what will we viewing with in ten years time... 20 " dob 100£

[Citizen]

Indeed. Monki is spot on

Just because some ask questions about how a particular scope works, or what ep is best, or should they upgrade their finderscope or even of that bright thing in the sky is Jupiter etc doesn't mean they don't have a genuine interest in astronomy, that may indeed go back a long long way. The assumption that Brian Cox may have got them into this is patronising at best.

You can have had a life long interest in Physics, science and space without ever having had the chance to own a scope until now, and those of us in that situation are benefitting from some fine equipment out there.

[Citizen]

. It seems the interest has always been there and it took reaching 40 for the spark to be lit properly!

Ditto. Long nights at home with the wife and kids, and an end to nightclubbing and an active social life have to be filled somehow

[Ptarmigan]

Long nights at home with the wife and kids, and an end to nightclubbing and an active social life have to be filled somehow

that reminds me of the Dads Army episode where Mainwaring plays the bagpipes (Burns Night) and admits to learning on honeymoon in Scotland where " there was not a lot else to do " !

I think the phase "you have never had it so good" could aptly be used for the choice of astro equipment available today

I think the last workhouses closed around 1948 so I can't remember that

I agree.

I remember <my father siting me down in front of the TV and> watching the first Sky@Night episode. He then gave me a lens (might have been a spectacle lens blank) and an "opera glass". I butchered the opera glass for its eyepiece and mounted it in a cardboard tube with the larger, longer focus, lens at the front end. Chromatic aberration ( I learned later) was dreadful but I saw craters on the moon and identified Uranus ( it moved from night to night !)

Ah nostalgia

Does that classify me as a dinosaur !?

I later learned that this arrangement (positive front element - negative eyepiece) was the same as wot Galileo used in his first scope !!

Only a few hundred years late - I was a late developer

[Chris]

Hi MT01 welcome to to the forum:) So what scope are you using at the moment? I take it you image if the thought of beginners wanting to image DSO's grinds your gears he he:D, you should post some of your pics on here.

[Grunthos]

...I butchered the opera glass for its eyepiece and mounted it in a cardboard tube with the larger, longer focus, lens at the front end...

That takes me way back to my first real astronomy book. It was called "Stars and Space" by some guy called Patrick Moore;)). First published in 1960 - I still have a copy...

I can remember trying to construct a telescope as per these instructions:

[Macavity]

I sense, the passage of time, the perennial "old versus young" - is a swings and roundabouts thing? I first became interested in astronomy (I read avidly!) from 1963 [aged eight] - But until 2000+ had ASSUMED it was the domain of "the rich". Too long an "apprenticeship", I sense!

I would still suggest that, compared to life today, my 60s/70s childhood and teenage years were simpler - Less (media) "Angst" filled maybe? To really push the boat out, I lament (perhaps because of the internet) fewer people seem to want to do their OWN research on the basics though? "I want to be an astronomer - Where do I start"? Hmmm... You and me both!

On the PLUS side I think some things don't change. "Kids" seem to cope well enough with ADULT Astronomy clubs? I'm not convinced "young people" <wince> require "special" programs / presenters re. Astronomy, current affairs... or anything else. They remain just as good at spotting / criticising the perversity of such things?

[MikeD]

but judging from the amount of "how do i ..." posts that are on here i think most people would benifit from starting out with a small simple scope and learning how to , i personally dont envy someone with no experience of goto or guiding or ccd`s or polar ailgnment ,eq mounts , or focal reducers ect , ect , buying thousands of pounds worth of kit and then facing a huge learning curve worth at least a uni degree , they must be thinking what have i done .....

Well, I am in my 40's and as a newbie (around 9 years ago) I came to astronomy with no previous knowledge of telescopes just a lifelong general interest in all things space.

My first scope was a small reflector which I very soon traded in for a 10" newt (the same newt I use today) and a desire to image it all (planets, the moon and DSO's).

All my knowledge has come from other people through forums and me posting lots of how do I do that questions.

Without asking those questions I think It would about another 10 years before I would have got to where I am today with my imaging on my own.

Im my experience I benefited more from the internet and forums like SGL than sticking with the small scope and doing my time.

Mike.

[Cloudwatcher]

Pre-Digital,Pre-Home Computers,how did we manage?